Day 24

Today was an interesting day, seems like I have had a lot of them in the last few weeks. J We traveled to see some potential building sites. It was really cool because I was able to see some different parts of the countryside. The area we went into, Guangxi Province, produced a 5^th of China’s sugar. They had fields of sugar cane like we have fields of corn and soybeans. They also are the largest producer of sesame flowers. They use this to make tea. Tea is by far the most common drink here. I have had several different flavors of it. Some of them I like others I cannot stand drinking. Overall, I do not think this trip will convert me into a tea drinker. They also had fields and fields of banana trees. All of the bananas had been picked already but I have had several fresh ones throughout the duration of my trip. We also went to their feed mill. They used a special kind of paint on the roof to keep the building cooler. They said they had a 15 degree Celsius temperature difference. My meals were definitely very different again. If the food I have eaten so far has not made you squirm some I think today’s meals might. For dinner, the meal was alright. There were a few different types of meat and seafood. I tend to lean more to the seafood here as it is unique to the area. There are several times that I will try something without knowing what it actually is. I usually wait to ask until after I have tried them. I have found out that it is a better practice. The new thing that I tried at dinner was pig bladder.  I had to ask a few times what is was, as it really did not look like a bladder to me. It honestly was not too bad. It had a slight spongy texture to it. At supper, I had a new fruit. It was called a fire dragon. It quite sweet. I really liked it. I hope to find more if I can. I also had a leeche. This is also a fruit. You have to peel a shell off it. The inside is clear and very sweet. There is a seed inside of it much like a cherry. For supper I had some great food. Although, I also had some bee larva, it was honestly pretty good. They were soft but had a slight crunch. Snails were also served. You used a tooth pick to pick it out of shell. After that you only eat the front part of it. They were not bad, once again they had a soft texture as expected but were easy to eat.